Truman Capote

Using your socially connected friends and acquaintances as models for your fictional characters often leads to blowback. Just ask Truman Capote, who became an outcast when excerpts from his unfinished roman a clef, “Answered Prayers,” found their way into print.

At least Phoebe Marlow, the high-spirited writer at the heart of Georgette Heyer’s 1957 romance novel, “Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle,” is smart enough to use a nom de plume. But when she’s unmasked, her social status takes a hit that turns her into the Regency-era version of “Harriet the Spy,” standing alone in a ballroom as members of the London elite turn their backs on her.

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